What makes a hit song? While great lyrics are important for a chart-topping ditty, they’re not the only thing that needs to enter to mix. The instruments, voice, and production are all important factors in creating a smash song.

“It’s important to understand what the writer wants to say,” said Igor Mescoi, a Moldovan-born, Queens-based music producer who owns New Sound Studio in Maspeth. “I have to feel his position in the song, because the arrangement is the base of the song. If you don’t find the right style and feeling, the song won’t sound right.”

A wrong pairing could ruin the song: picture the lyrics of “I Love Rock N’ Roll” set to the polka. “I have to feel what he has to say,” Mescoi said.

So far he seems to have the right feeling. Mescoi recently finished producing an album for Romanian superstar Gheorghe Gheorghiu. It marks the fourth time the two have worked together on one of Gheorghiu’s albums, and the first time they have reached platinum status in Romania.

Gheorghiu came over to America to stay with Mescoi for the four-month-long process. “It was very intensive,” said Mescoi. “We were in the studio almost every day.”

Mescoi worked so hard that he even took his work out of the studio and into his dreams. “One time I woke up at four in the morning with a dream for a song,” he said. “When I woke up, I remembered all the song in my head.

“I went to my studio to record before I could forget it,” he said. The song – “Te Voi Iubi Mereu,” which means “I Will Love You Forever” – is track fourteen on Gheorghiu’s Best Of album.

“Gheorghe was here, asleep, and he saw me in the morning, and said, ‘You’re a crazy man. Why aren’t you asleep?’” Mescoi laughed. “Then he heard the song and asked if he could have it for his album.”

During intense projects like this, Mescoi focuses mainly on one or two artists. “Most times I can be with several artists at once,” he said. “But when artists from Moldova or Romania come over and they have four songs they need in two weeks, I sometimes have to work only with them.”

Now that the project with Gheorghiu is wrapped up, and he’s finished another album for the artist Moshe Nunez, he’s free to work with a larger number of artists at a time.

“I do everything from the beginning to the end of the song,” he said, standing in his studio. “We can do all the instruments in here – even the violins and the trumpets in here. Then we combine the electronic music with live instruments.”

Once he finds the feeling of the song, he’s ready to dive in head first and churn out yet another hit.